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Just thought I'd pass on some info that may be of interest to those in the UK who need to bank dollar cheques.

According to the woman I just spoke to, the Nationwide Flex Account does not make any charge for this.

This is the only UK high street bank I have found that doesn't charge.

I know that many affiliates are using the Citibank account - although there seems to be varying opinions on whether you are supposed to maintain a certain cash balance to operate the account.

My experience with Citibank so far only extends to calling them to ask for an application form ..

I was put through to an Indian call centre where the operator hardly understood a word of English - She told me that the form would be sent out and was about to put down the phone, until I pointed out that I hadn't given her my address yet!

Oh yes sir, I'm sorry - needless to say, the application form has never arrived - It took me 10 minutes to spell out my name and address letter by letter - I knew it wasn't being written down properly.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dynamoo:
Cool.. lots of branches too. There used to be some funny restrictions on account signups didn't there, to stop carpetbaggers. Can't see any mention of them now.. did the law change or something?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

From memory, those carpetbagger restrictions that were very high profile a few years ago, just said that you could open an account like anyone else - but you wouldn't qualify for shares if they went private.

Don't know if this is still in force - those days seem to have gone now.

I will say this about Nationwide - because they have not privatised, they are much more competitive than other banks - this is probably the reason they don't screw you for commission like the others.

I would guess that you would get an excellent rate for the conversion into sterling too - I have my mortgage with them and they have always given me a great service

I have always banked with the Halifax, just one of them things that people always seen to do, just stick with the one and not shop around, but its quite a decent amount for the first cheque, so i want to get the best return rates. Rang the Halifax but never got a decent answer, so its time to find somewhere else.

Its not to cash and spend but to stick in an account and leave for a raining day!

allposters.com was the first affiliate scheme I signed up with and the return rate has been pretty good, so hopefully more cheques will follow ....

Might seem crazy to recommend Bank of Scotland - but they seem to have branches UK-wide and I'm always surprised by how many of my dirt-world business customers use them "down South".

This is prob open to local interpretation, but I get charged per bunch of cheques rather than per cheque (well, actually per bunch of 6 cheques as that's how many fit on the slips they use). It works out at .25% commission, with a £5 minimum, so any batch under £2000 costs £5 commission.

If I were shopping around for a new account today, I'd be looking at the rate of exchange as much as the charges ... and how easy it is to find - in advance - the rate you will be charged if you go into the bank today (not the various tourist and other rates they seem to publish on their websites). The fluctuations can start to make quite a difference if you have some flexibility about how long you hold onto cheques for - though it's a gamble of course.

It's true that charges for cashing dollar cheques is not the only issue to consider.

If you are fortunate enough to have large amounts to pay in, the most important thing to consider would be exchange rates back into sterling.

Also important is the time it takes to clear - if your money is not earning interest for 6 weeks, you could be losing a lot of investment income!

However, if you are only paying in a couple of hundred bucks per month, spread over 3-4 cheques, these two things are not worth worrying about - getting no transaction charge is the most important saving

It looks like it could be a long ring round the major banks and building societies to see which one looks the best. Cashing US cheques never entered my head when i started being an affiliate. Its only when the first one is about to arrive that it occured to me!

Heres hoping it's the first of many ....

As a matter of interest, is their any UK affiliates that make a decent monthly sum just promoting UK programs? I have been reading various threads on this board and can find very little reference to decent UK affiliate programs. Most are aimed at the US market, which is obvious really as its a larger target audience.

Can we get a definitive answer here about any other banks not charging for dollar cheques?

If we can get a list together, these banks would be the obvious first place to consider when looking for an account.

Naturally, the other factors need to be considered too - but I would suggest that most affiliates are earning fairly low amounts - and therefore exchange rates and cheque clearance times are a lower priority.

Also, if you are earning large sums and those things are therefore important to you, you will probably be looking for a dollar account anyway - maybe we can start a different thread for that

If we are talking sterling accounts, then I think almost all banks will be the same regarding opening balance and balance you need to maintain - probably £1, or some other minimal amount - you generally are only asked to maintain large balances with a dollar account

Minimum cheque amounts that can be paid in - again, I would think most would be the same - no minimum - but there would always be a minimum charge of, for example, £5 - so there would be no point paying in tiny amounts.

Fair exchange rates and cheque clearance times are the main things to compare I think.

Although, as I said before, this only matters when you are banking lots of cash - and you really need a dollar account then anyway.

Main advantage of a dollar account is that you don't have to convert your cash to sterling when the exchange rate is poor - you can let it build up in dollars and convert it to sterling once the pound has gone back to around $1.50 instead of $1.70 as it is now

If you are a big player, it could mean a few thousand pounds of extra income!

This is where i need some advice from you guys,
So far, i signed up with allposters and i have a first cheque on the way for in excess of $1000 dollars Don't ask me why its this much, i dont know! But if it carries on then it might be this every month or it could be just a fad before xmas.

I wondered if it was worth putting it in my normal bank account or opening another that likes US cheques.

Bank of scotland business account charges me about £5 for a US$ cheque... and their us$ account isn't a proper one for US companies to pay into apparently AND it charges $5 for just putting a cheque in in commission charges.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mogga:
£6.50 a cheque is what you should get charged.
QUOTE]

Mogga - who charges £6.50?

If you are referring to Nationwide, I've been assured it's free - but I'll check again before I hand over a bunch of cheques.

Also, my advice to you is NEVER tell a bank that you plan to use their account as a business account - they will whack on loads of extra charges.

As long as you are not banking dozens of dollar cheques every week, you are highly unlikely to be ever questioned - this assumes that the cheques you receive are payable to your name - not a company name of course.

Yes Nationwide FlexAccount charges £6.50
(Up until the summer at least when I stopped putting work stuff in there - they *might* have removed charges but I still use the account and they've not notified me)
Ys I have stuff that comes to company name so can't do it that way anymore.

just to let you know, that barclays o not charge for foreign checks under £50

so if you gets lots of little ones, open a barclays account.
I think they only charge per batch too, so not for each single check over £50.
They used to send a slip letting me know thecosts, but stopped that last year for some reason!! very annoying, as its nice to know how much actally went into the bank without waiting for a statement.(bad for keeping my books too)

Isn't it crazy that we have to post messages in a forum like this to try and find out what a bank's TOS are...

When I was looking into this myself I queued to speak to a real human being in my local Barclays branch - to receive the answer: "I couldn't tell you....."
No offer by her to find out and let me know.
Simply "I couldn't tell you."

If the online FAQ doesn't answer your specific question, and unless you're lucky enough to get the telephone rep who is on the ball, you're basically stuffed.

As people are using this thread to find out TOS I'll complete Tamalyn's details on Barclays: Their currency exchange forms can be used for up to three cheques at once, and the fee is capped at £9. If you use their online banking you can see the exact exchange rate that was used, and from that work out what the fee was. This is easy enough, but it was nice to be told like we were last year.

All the counter staff do is check the forms and post them to a central location, so they wouldn't know about the fees. They should however be able to find the info for you easily enough. In my experience their customer service is extremely good.

Even getting that far was really confusing. You walk in, notice that several people are sitting against the wall. There is a big sign saying "Please take a ticket and your number will be called" but no ticket dispenser.

After asking the people waiting, and much shrugging of shoulders, you come to the conclusion there are no tickets, and join the end of the queue.

After anything up to an hour your turn comes, and you get to speak to someone.